Former UTSA coach named to Olympic staff

Rose Monday, a former UTSA coach, was named an assistant coach for the USA Track & Field 2012 women’s Olympic team, specializing in endurance athletes.

A middle distance and distance running specialist, Monday served as UTSA’s cross country head coach and assistant track coach for men and women from 2001 to 2007.

“I can’t tell you how exciting this is and what a huge honor it is,” Monday said Thursday after learning of her appointment. “There are so many great coaches out there, so this is a great honor.

“I will be a facilitator with each of the athlete’s individual coaches, working with 800 meters through marathons. Most will have personal coaches, but if a personal coach can’t be there for some reason, I will work with the athlete myself.”

Monday, a member of Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national championship teams at Cal State Northridge from 1978-80, began coaching in 1992 at a small Catholic school in the Los Angeles area. But coaching wasn’t what she had her sights set on when she first left college.

“After college, I ran for Track West,” Monday said. “I had an excellent coach, Skip Stolley, who coached me to the national level.

“He actually suggested early on that I would be a good coach, but at the time, I had no interest in that. It wasn’t just ‘no,’ but ‘hell no.’”

While under Stolley’s mentorship, Monday won the 1985 indoor championship at 800 meters. However, in 1992, she decided to stop competing and start a family. She and her husband, John, had married in 1980 and planned to have a family, but it wasn’t until the death of her father that she realized it was time.

“I had been competing for all these years and putting off having children and now my children weren’t going to know their Papa,” she said.

Monday’s first child, Mary, was born in August of 1993. During the pregnancy, Monday gained 50 pounds and she was determined to lose that. While running to get back in shape, she realized she was running very well and she began to compete again, at the local cross-country level.

“Then I found I was pregnant again, but I stayed fit during that one,” she said.

After her son, Jack, was born in June of 1995, Monday worked back to a competitive level and began entering USATF Masters events in 1996. She won 12 national championships indoor and outdoor for the 800 and 1,500 and set four American records in those events (since broken).

She went to the 1999 masters world championships in England and, in 2001, she won the masters world championship in the 800, finished second in the 1,500 and fourth in the 400 in Australia. She competed on the masters level for nine years and was ranked No. 1 in the world in the masters 800 until after she retired from competition after the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials.

Monday moved to San Antonio in 2000 when her husband was transferred by AT&T. Looking for a place to train, she called UTSA to see if she could use the school’s track. She was surprised at the quick acceptance of her request.

While training at UTSA, she became an informal mentor from some of the athletes and soon was hearing from the women’s track coach, James Blackwood.

“He asked me to coach, but my answer was still ‘no’,” Monday said. “But he stayed on me and stayed on me and I finally decided to do it.”

Monday was not only impressed with Blackwood, but also with former track star Dr. Ricardo Romo, president of UTSA, and athletic director Lynn Hickey.

“I had great mentors and great athletes at UTSA and it was very exciting,” she said. “Coach Blackwood allowed me to coach; he believed in me. It was very hard to leave there. I had a lot of support.”

That support came not only from the university and her former coach, but also from those at home.

“I could not have done any of this without the huge support of my husband, John,” she said. “He has been there for me with the ups and downs as an athlete and a coach. He is truly my hero.”

Monday said the decision to leave UTSA came from the desire to have more time for her family. Her children were competing in swimming and cross country and she felt she was missing too much.

Mary, a senior at Reagan, is a four-year letterman in swimming and is headed to Texas A&M to study engineering. Jack, a sophomore, has run varsity cross country and lettered in swimming for two years.

While with UTSA, Monday was gaining recognition with USA Track and Field.

In 2003, she was named USATF development chairman for women’s distance events; in 2004, she was an assistant coach at the World Indoor Championships in Budapest; and in 2006, she coached at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing.

In 2008, she was head coach of the U.S. team at the North American, Central American and Caribbean championships in El Salvador and she coached the 2009 Junior Pan-Am team in Trinidad.

While she is not working with a school team any longer, Monday does coach, but on the elite level with Next Level Track Club. She is the endurance coach for four world-class athletes: LeJerald Betters, Quentin Iglehart-Summers (formerly of Madison and Baylor) and Michael Courtney. She also works with Maggie Vessey, who runs for New Balance.

But, for Monday, it really started with one person: Stolley

“I appreciated him when he was my coach, but I really appreciated him once I became a coach,” she said. “I called him as soon as I heard the news (about making the Olympic coaching squad). If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here.”